Sentences written about this title, gathered by type from the Japanese and English Wikipedia articles (as of 2026-8-30).
It is the 2nd title in the Megami Tensei series handled by Atlus, the developer of this game, and a sequel to the previous title Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei (for the FC, Namco, 1987) (see "#Development" below).
The Family Computer version earned a place in the Gold Hall of Fame in the "Cross Review" feature of the magazine Famitsu, and in the same magazine's "'90 Best Hit Game Awards" it placed 8th on reader support and won the RPG prize.
In the same magazine's "'90 Best Hit Game Awards" it also ranked 8th on reader support, and it won the RPG prize in the awards by genre.
In the "Game Report Card" reader poll run by the magazine Family Computer Magazine, it scored 22.78 out of 30, as shown below.
The game received critical acclaim upon release, was partially remade in the 1992 Super Famicom title Shin Megami Tensei, and is regarded as an influential entry in the series.
Its demon fusion mechanics and improved mapping system were praised, although one reviewer felt that the pace was too slow.
In its retrospective on the series, Japanese magazine Yougo praised the game's cautionary message concerning black and white morality, praising its mixture of cyberpunk and occult elements, and citing it as the reason the Megami Tensei series continued.
The game met with critical and commercial success, and according to director Kouji Okada gave the Atlus team "breathing room" for developing a second game.
Okada recalled that due to space limitations with the original, Atlus had a lot of work they could not include.
Commenting later, he felt his early designs were "forced", and said that Nintendo were concerned about the mature aspects of his demon designs to the point of asking him to remove the nipples from a naked female figure.
Development was handled by Atlus, and Kazuma Kaneko took charge of the character design and the demon design for the first time.
Okada recalled that due to space limitations with the original, Atlus had a lot of work they could not include.
This has been attributed to Nintendo's policy of censoring religious references in games, which rendered the early Megami Tensei titles unsuitable for localization due to their central religious elements.
This has been attributed to Nintendo's policy of censoring religious references in games, which rendered the early Megami Tensei titles unsuitable for localization due to their central religious elements.
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